We left Destination #1 after a big hotel buffet breakfast and hit the road for Destination #2.  I was armed with snacks, juice boxes, backpacks full of toys and a seemingly never ending library of kids’ DVDs.  I just knew that I was ready for another long haul.

The thing that I didn’t consider is what would happen when Emma dropped the toy she was playing with into the floorboard of the car.  Oh my word.  I obviously couldn’t reach the toys because I was driving, and Zack was buckled into his car seat so he couldn’t get them, either.  She carried on like her arm had been cutoff, even though she had plenty of other stuff in her backpack.  For a few minutes, the screaming was enough to make me want to turn around and head back home.  I wish I would have taken one of those grabber arms so that Zack could have reached her toys for her.

Once I had exhausted the stash of toys I had in my front seat for her, all I could do was pass back snacks.  That girl ate her weight in Goldfish that day, but it kept her satisfied and that was the name of the game during our 11 hour trip.

Zack got several more maps to add to his collection, and we saw some cool things at a particularly cool state Welcome Center (and the best one we’ve been to out of all the ones we’ve visited).  You may have seen it before, too.

We reached our destination and spent three full days there.  We packed in a lot during those three days, used about three bottles of sunscreen and took several showers each day.  It was hot and humid!  However, since we were there the week after the July 4th holiday, the area wasn’t as busy as I had assumed it would be.  Score one for the mama trying to do it alone with two kids!

There are some big hints in the photos above, but you’ll have to look closely to figure it out.  Where do you think we were?

With 1100 miles under our belts, we are well into our secret journey.  I honestly started having panic attacks the night before we left, but I have been pleasantly surprised with how easy it has been so far.

On Saturday morning, we left at 8 am for what should have been a 9 hour drive to our first destination.  Instead of trying to push as hard and as fast as I could go, I made the decision that the entire trip would be about patience and doing what I needed to do to keep the kids happy.  That meant that we would end up stopping every two hours for the first leg of our trip, and a 9 hour drive would turn into an 11 hour drive.

We had to stop for lunch just four hours into the trip, but we Skyped with Daddy as we enjoyed some Chicken McNuggets.  Emma didn’t eat much since she was so busy talking.

One of my readers had suggested that we stop at each state Welcome Center and take a picture in front of the sign.  I loved that idea, so we diligently stopped at the first state we entered.  The state marker was around behind the Welcome Center, and when we went back there, there was a shady dude camped out next to it.  So, I told the kids to hightail it out of there.

We still wanted to figure out something “fun” to do as we crossed into a new state, and Zack decided he’d like to collect state maps.  So,  that’s what we’ve been doing.  I think it’s a pretty neat thing for him to do, and I’m proud of him for thinking of it.

After many stops, several movies in the DVD players and a few new maps, we finally arrived at our overnight location.  One of my favorite cousins lives there, so we got to visit with him over a fun dinner on the water.  We stayed at a hotel that night, and getting the kids to actually go to sleep was a challenge, but in the end we all got a good night’s sleep.

Here are a few hints about our first destination…

1.  The restaurant logo on the kids’ menu from where we ate with my cousin.  I removed a few letters so that it wouldn’t give it totally away.  Google will probably help.

2.  Scenes from a post card I picked up at a truck stop.  I’m a sucker for truck stop tschotskes.

Anyone want to venture a guess?